Referat Death Penalty in the USA

Death Penalty in the USA

1. History

The first recorded death sentence in the British North American colonies was carried out in

1608 on Captain George Kendall.

The first woman was executed in 1632.

In the period from 1930 to 2002, 4,661 executions were carried out in the U.S, about two­

thirds of them in the first 20 years.

2. Abolition

Now I want to show you a map about practising death

penalty in the different states in the USA.

Death penalty statutes in the United States as of March 2013

Color key:

No current death penalty statute

Death penalty statute declared unconstitutional

No one executed since 1976

Has performed execution since 1976

The District of Columbia and the following 18 U.S. states currently do not have an death penalty statute (the year it was abolished is in parentheses).

Michigan abolished the death penalty in 1846 and Conneticut nearly 166 years later.

It was a long development from the first death penalty of Captain George Kendall until the reforms today. It hang over 400 years.

Alaska (1957) Connecticut (2012) Hawaii (1957) Illinois (2011)

Iowa (1965) Maine (1887) Maryland (2013)

Massachusetts (1984) Michigan (1846) Minnesota(1911)

New Jersey (2007)

New Mexico (2009)

New York (2007) North Dakota (1973) Rhode Island (1984) Vermont (1964)

West Virginia (1965)

Wisconsin (1853)

3. Facts on the Death Penalty

3.1. The United States currently has 3000 inmates. Many of them are colored. In the so-called

,,death rows" (Todeszellen) of federal and state prisons were these prisoners waiting for

their execution. The number of women in prison is about 50. The death row inmates wait an average of 7 years in their execution.

3.2. Every year about 200 executions carried out in the U.S. Most of them are deadly

injections or electric chair.

3.3. The outspoken death penalty can only be canceled by the gouvernor.

4. Execution methods (Hinrichtungsmethoden)

There are six methods of death penalty.

4.1. Lethal injection (Giftspritze)

4.2. Electric chair (Elektrischer Stuhi)

4.3. death by hanging (Hangen)

4.4. death by firing squad(ErschieBen)

4.5. gas chamber (Gaskammer)

4.6. beheaded

Two of them - Lethal injection and Electric chair - are the most used.

4.1. Lethal Injection room

The United States first legalized

and used lethal injection as a method of execution.

Also copied by other states for example China. Lethal injection is the practice of

injecting person with a fatal dose of drugs.

In the late twentieth century lethal injection is popular as a form of execution.

It take the place of other methods, notably (insbesondere) electrocution, hanging,

firing squad, gas chamber, and beheading. They were more painful.

4.2. Electric chair (electrocution)

Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States.

This execution method was created by Thomas Eddison.

Death in the electric chair is quickly.

The convict dies from electric shock which stops the heart.

The electric chair has been declared as a cruel punishment in

many states and is no longer used in most states.

So far, the latest person executed in an electric chair has been Paul

Powell, a man who killed a teenage girl and raped another. He was executed in Virginia in 20W.

4.3. Death by Hanging

Hanging is the suspension (Authangen) of a person by a ligature(Schlinge).

The states that hanging in this sense

is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck".

4.4. Death by firing squad

The method is often the punishment by military courts. Death by firing squad has a symbolic meaning.

The execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner in Utah in

the United States in 2010 is very famous.

A target was placed over his heart and

a hood over his head before the five men opened fire.

Gardner wouldn't have seen the law enforcement officers who volunteered to carry out the death sentence.

He would have been bathed in light, while they remained

hidden in darkness some 20 feet away.

4.5. gas chamber

A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans with gas, consisting of a chamber into

which a poisonous gas is introduced.

Gas chambers were used as a method of execution

for condemned prisoners in the United States beginning in the 1920s.

Gas chambers have been used for

capital punishment in the United States to execute

criminals, especially convicted murderers

4.6. Beheading

Beheading is the separation of the head from the body. The Utah Territory permitted a person sentenced to death

to choose beheading as a means of execution.

No person chose that option, and

it was dropped when Utah became a state.

The former gas chamber in New Mexico State

Penitentiary,

used only once in 1960 and later replaced by lethal jojcction.

California, San Ouentin State Prison

The convict is forced long before the execution, to live with the idea of being executed at a given date.

The whole time in death row the convict has to feel the fact - hope and will to live and the coming death.

6. Racism

48 percent of the death row inmates are black or members of other minorities, although their share in the total population is only twelve percent.

Only about 1% of the murders committed (verurteilt) in the United States has the death

sentence.

The best chance of being sentenced to death, you have when you're poor.

A former governor of Ohio, described his experience this way: "During my time as Governor, I have learned that all death row inmates have one thing in common: they are poor.

There are other similarities (Gemeinsamkeiten)

(drastisch unterpriviligiert).

Most had below-average intelligence (unterdurchschnittliche Intelligenz), suffered (erleiden)

from mental illness (Geisteskrank) or brain damage (Himschäden).

In 12 U.S. states, the death penalty may be enforced (durchgesetzt) under 16 years.

In four states, the minimum age is 17 years. In Mississippi, the minimum age is 13 years.

8. Mentally handicapped (geistig Behinderte)

Under U.S. law, persons who suffer from a mental illness of the crime or mental disorders and were therefore unable to blame, not considered to be criminal responsibility.

But only 12 U.S. states now prohibit the execution of mentally disabled by law.

Since reinstating the death penalty in 1976, 35 convicts, mentally handicapped, were executed.

Public defender appointed by the courts are often inexperienced, incompetent and underpaid.

9. Ethics

Conservation of man (Arterhaltung) is the foundation of ethics.

For this reason and because killing people is not allowed consequently, the death penalty must also be prohibited.

But even some democratic countries, like the United States have not yet abolished the death penalty and they still carry out.

They claim that is ethically defensible. Thank you for listening.